Generally, silver halide color photographic materials have silver halide emulsion layers which are sensitive to the three primary colors of blue, green and red and form yellow color, magenta color and cyan color, respectively. A dye image is reproduced by subtractive color photography. Accordingly, dye images which are reproduced depend greatly on the color sensitivity characteristics of each layer and the spectral absorption characteristics of color formation. Generally, these characteristics are not always optimized because of the restriction on color formability of the compounds used. Particularly, the hue of the developed color of magenta couplers is important for color reproducibility.
Many improvements in magenta couplers have been made. Of these, pyrazoloazole magenta couplers are excellent in spectral absorption characteristics of the developed color hue in particular. In order to improve the developed color hue of 5-pyrazolone magenta couplers, there have been developed anilino magenta couplers (see JP-A-49-74027 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application") corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,907,571 and JP-A-49-111631 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,935,015) which are superior in spectral absorption characteristics to ureido and acylamino couplers.
Further, there have been developed pyrazoloazole magenta couplers (see, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,725,067, 3,369,897, 4,500,630 and 4,540,654, JP-A-60-33552, JP-A-60-43659) which exhibit unnecessary secondary absorption. Couplers of these types are advantageous in that unnecessary absorption in the regions of blue light and red light is small in comparison with dye images obtained from 5-pyrazolone magenta couplers. Accordingly, these couplers have improved color reproducibility. Further, these couplers have advantages in that the couplers are stable in the presence of light, heat and humidity and are difficult to decompose. Hence the resulting images are not yellowed. Among the pyrazoloazole magenta couplers, pyrazolo[1,5-b][1,2,4]triazole derivatives are excellent in color formation and fastness to light.
Rapid processing has been increasingly important in the photographic market in recent years.
Silver halide mainly composed of silver bromide has been conventionally used. However, silver halide composed mainly of silver bromide is disadvantageous in rapid processing, because bromide ion restrains development. Accordingly, it is preferred that silver halide composed mainly of silver chloride is used for rapid processing. Thus, a high silver chloride emulsion having a high silver chloride content is advantageous in rapid processing.
A problem has been observed in photographic materials containing a high silver chloride emulsion in combination with pyrazoloazole magenta couplers such as pyrazolo[1,5-b][1,2,4]triazole derivatives; a magenta color is formed during storage under moist heat conditions and there is a deterioration in the yellow hue of the image. Thus, there is a great demand for photographic materials which are improved in yellow color reproducibility (retention) during storage.